Laboratory of Molecular Biology - Early Beginnings: 1947-61

Early Beginnings: 1947-61

Max Perutz, following an undergraduate training in organic chemistry, left Austria in 1936 and came to the University of Cambridge to study for a PhD, joining the X-ray crystallographic group led by J.D. Bernal. Here, in the Cavendish laboratory, he started his lifelong work on hemoglobin. The death of Lord Rutherford led to his successor, Lawrence Bragg, a pioneer in X-ray crystallography, becoming the new Cavendish professor of physics in 1938. Bragg became a major supporter of Perutz and his group in those early days.

After World War II, many scientists from the physical side of science turned to biology, bringing with them a new way of thinking and expertise. John Kendrew joined Perutz’s group to study a protein closely related to hemoglobin — myoglobin — in 1946. In 1947, the Medical Research Council (MRC), under the guidance of its Secretary Harold Himsworth, decided to form and support the “MRC Unit for the Study of the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems”. The group, which by 1948 also included Hugh Huxley working on muscle, was joined in 1949 by Francis Crick, who worked initially on protein crystallography. In 1951 they were joined by James Watson.

1953 was an annus mirabilis: Watson and Crick discovered the double-helical structure of DNA, which revealed that biological information was encoded in a linear structure and how this information could be duplicated during cell division. Perutz discovered that the detailed three dimensional structures of proteins, such as myoglobin and hemoglobin could, in principle, be solved by X-ray analysis using a heavy metal atom labeling technique. Hugh Huxley discovered that muscle contraction works by a sliding filament mechanism.

In 1957 the group’s name was changed to the “MRC Unit for Molecular Biology”. Also that year, Vernon Ingram discovered that the disease sickle cell anaemia is caused by a single amino acid change in the hemoglobin molecule and Sydney Brenner joined the Unit. In 1958, Crick’s review “On Protein Synthesis” appeared: this laid out, for the first time, the central dogma of molecular biology, the sequence hypothesis and the adaptor hypothesis. In 1961 Brenner helped discover messenger RNA and, in the same year, he and Crick established that the genetic code was read in triplets.

All this work was accomplished in a single-storey temporary building (The Hut), a few rooms in the Austin Wing, a room with a lean-to glass front (The Greenhouse) and a short sealed off corridor (The Gallery) within the Cavendish laboratory.